Stephen Walt, the co-author of The Israel Lobby, today personally demonstrates that the third rail of American politics is on the blink. A year after the Washington Post's Dana Milbank sought to smear him as a crypto-Nazi, he's in business as a blogger for the Washington Post company, at Foreign Policy magazine. Today he has a brilliant post on What-if-it-were-the-Jews who were stateless in Palestine and hurling rockets towards Palestinian settlements--which side would we be on? The answer, of course, is that the U.S. would never have allowed the Jews of Israel/Palestine to suffer 60 years without the right of self-determination.
And here is part of his realist credo:
Finally, realists are skeptical of the propaganda that states invariably deploy to justify self-interested policies, and they know that fear, greed or stupidity sometimes lead even well-intentioned democracies to do foolish or cruel things (see under "Iraq"). Realists arenât moral relativists and donât think all great powers are morally equivalent, but they know better than to take any country's idealistic rhetoric at face value.
Readers here know that I'm an old lefty contaminated by Walt's realism. That credo and Walt's post linked above, about stateless Jews, is why. Walt has shown greater concern about Palestinian human rights than just about anyone in the establishment. That he's done so with an effortless charm is now demonstrated by the fact that he's a blogger at Foreign Policy. We're coming in.
As to my contamination--despite the credo of this blog, I'm not an idea-person, I'm a writer of passion who tries to be analytical. I've felt comfortable in the company of realists because along with the left they tried to save America from the Iraq disaster. The cruel Iraq disaster. I've been drawn to their cool sense of an American interest as an antidote to the hidden-agenda culturalism of the neocons. I've been drawn to W&M personally because they're smart philosemites. And I like to think that the human-rights, anti-imperialist left is rubbing off on those guys too. Right now we need each other.
'I've felt comfortable in the company of realists because along with the left they tried to save America from the Iraq disaster. The cruel Iraq disaster.'
The Iraq disaster isn't even over yet. Meanwhile, the Afghanistan quagmire deepens.
A glance at the map will show that Iraq and Afghanistan abut Iran on the west and east, respectively. Now Barack Dubya Obama wants to heat up the other jaw of the pincers with his Surge II into Afghanistan.
The troubling implication of Surge II is that AIPAC's obssession, Iran, is still the ultimate prize. In much the same way that the Bush mafia family spent 13 years plotting how to 'get' Saddam Hussein to avenge Poppy Bush's humiliation on the road to Baghdad, the corporate entity Usgov still retains an idée fixe — avidly fanned by the neocons — that the loss of Iran to Islamic revolution in 1979 was a theft to be avenged.
In his Jan. 4th blog post, Walt brushes off Obama's appointments of warmongers Gates and Clinton as 'armor-plating his administration against future criticism.'
Too, too facile. 'Realist' Walt needs to abandon naive 'coincidence theories' and realize that certain long-term policy trends — those which extend over multiple administrations — are very carefully planned behind the scenes by very powerful players. Attributing to Obama complete discretion to staff his administration is silly. Foreign Policy is a vital part of the elite opinion-molding apparatus. Walt pitches in by laundering sinister presidential appointments into innocuous tactics in the political horserace. It's the price of remaining viable within the Harvard system.
Ron Paul denounces Gaza attack
http://www.dailypaul.com/Ron Paul denounces Gaza invasion.
He has more courage in his little finger than Obama had or ever will have IMHO.
you aren't "an old lefty", Phil, you are an old media trollop.
Great analysis, Jim. Maybe you can leave a comment over on Walt's blog challenging that facile assertion of his?
I also want to congratulate Phil on the link from Walt's blog at Foreign Policy. Baby steps…
I agree with MM's comments. Jim, you should do it, so we can see
how Walt responds.
There would not have been any stateless Jews had Israel lost in '67, because the Arabs would have exterminated them.
Walt is simply NOT cognizant of how few Israelis have ever remained alive when they fell into Arab hands, the thousand or so who returned from Jordanian captivity did so because they were in a state under the watchful eye of the British.
That is a very good post, Jim.
I'm still not sure if it was you who I was slagging for bashing the Palestinians, apparently after a recent trip to Israel.
Was that you?
If it was I don't understand how you could have such an ignorant view of the Palestinians – particularly after reading such a prescient analysis as the one above.
stevieb, there's a zionist asshat impersonating Jim Haygood, and doing such a coherent job of it that he can't decide whether to try to depict Haygood as a nazi or a rabid zionist. (Not many degrees of separation between the two, but still…)
Chalk it up to the cognitive dissonance of being both "chosen" and an unfunny, juvenile wanker.
'Ron Paul denounces Gaza attack'
Many Americans will one day come to the realisation that the obscure Senator who ran in 07 could well have staved off the precipitous fall the US now seems destined to take. He will seem like a prophet in the wilderness of American ignorance and hubris.
I say this as one of Ed's hated 'left-liberals' – thereby calling into question the usefulness of that purblind analysis.